U.N. Telecom Agency Denies Internet Takeover Rumors | TPM Idea Lab

A U.N. telecommunications agency is pushing back against concerns of U.S. activists, lawmakers and journalists that the governments of China, Russia and some Middle Eastern countries could use the agency to impose new global Internet regulations permitting international censorship, snooping and potential taxation of Internet traffic.

The agency in question, the International Telecommunications Union, is in charge of a summit scheduled for Dubai in December where representatives from the 193 countries that make up the U.N. are set to meet to revise a 1988 treaty on global telephone service regulations.

An ITU representative flatly denied to TPM that the agency was making or permitting an international Internet governance power grab.